Roe V Wade Overturned: Michelle Obama Expresses Heartbreak

The American Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Americans no longer have a constitutional right to abortion. Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority. Among many important people who have responded to the ruling are the former US President and first Lady Barack and Michelle Obama.

Michelle Obama took to her social media and issued a long post. She started her post saying that she feels heartbroken for people around the country as they have lost the fundamental right to make informed decision about their bodies. She reminds how the women of the country would now live under the same rules their great grandmothers fought when the government decided what was right for a woman and forced them to carry on with unwanted pregnancies.

Here are some key snippets from her post:

"So yes, I am heartbroken – for the teenage girl, full of zest and promise, who won't be able to finish school or live the life she wants because her state controls her reproductive decisions; for the mother of a nonviable pregnancy who is now forced to bring that pregnancy to term; for the parents watching their child's future evaporate before their very eyes; for the health care workers who can no longer help them without risking jail time,"

“I am heartbroken today. I am heartbroken for people around this country who just lost the fundamental right to make informed decisions about their bodies,” Obama wrote.

“I am heartbroken that we may now be destined to learn the painful lessons of a time before Roe was made law of the land - a time when women risked losing their lives getting illegal abortions," she added.

“A time when the government denied women control over their reproductive functions, forced them to move forward with pregnancies they didn’t want, and then abandoned them once their babies were born."

“That is what our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived through, and now here we are again.”

Roe V Wade Michelle Obama statement. You can read the full post here.

For the uninitiated Roe v. Wade, was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court saying that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion.